1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a reinstallation method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in the field of image processing apparatuses such as a multifunction peripheral, an environment for application execution of image processing apparatuses has been put into place using, for example, JAVA®.
The image processing apparatuses including the environment enable an end user to select and purchase a desired application, and to install and uninstall the application as necessary. Therefore, numerous combinations of application execution environments and applications are available. Accordingly, a failure is more likely to occur during operations in the environments than in other environments for application execution where only a preset function operates. Up to now, various measures for recovering from such a failure have been performed. As for recovery from a failure in updating an application, for example, a method for restoring the application to an old version is proposed as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-171635.
On the other hand, some image processing apparatuses can set, as license information of an application, the expiration date or the maximum allowable number of operations of a predetermined function (for example, a reading function, a facsimile or e-mail transmission function, and a document printing function). Further, license information of an application can include information identifying specific image processing apparatuses allowed to install the application thereon, thus preventing other apparatuses from using the application, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-40217.
If the expiration date or the maximum allowable number of operations of a function is set as license information of an application, the expiration date or the maximum allowable number of operations is read out from the license information upon application installation and stored in a non-volatile storage medium to be managed under an application execution environment.
If an application is reinstalled simply by reusing license information stored as a backup for the purpose of failure recovery, the expiration date or the like is extracted from the license information and stored (or added) in the non-volatile storage medium again upon reinstallation. As a result, a problem of increasing (adding) the expiration date or the maximum allowable number of operations occurs. For example, when an application valid for 20 days is installed and the application is then reinstalled 10 days later, information indicating the 20-day valid period is additionally stored in the non-volatile storage medium upon reinstallation. Thus, the valid period may be reset to 20 days (or if added, to 30 days).